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An article at Nintendo Gamer highlights how Electronic Arts put almost no work into the latest Wii release of their FIFA soccer game franchise, but didn't hesitate to push it out the door anyway. Side-by-side screenshots show the Wii version of FIFA 12 got some minor graphical tweaks — a different splash screen, slightly modified logos, different colored socks on the players — before being re-released as FIFA 13. From the article:
"This is something that needs to be highlighted, because while it would be easy to pass it off and say 'meh, it’s just the Wii version,' the fact remains that this game does still sell relatively well. This isn’t guesswork – as journalists we receive confidential sales figures and though we’re legally bound not to reveal those figures, we can at least say with confidence that FIFA 12 did pretty well for a Wii game this close to the console’s death. The Wii U version of FIFA 13 will no doubt be a fantastic game, since it’ll share a lot (if not all) of the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions’ features. The 3DS version is a solid improvement over last year’s effort, and worth a look if you’re into some handheld football action. This, however – a £30 roster update – is unacceptable."

People buy Electronic Arts games because they want football games. Electronic Arts owns the exclusive rights to make video games based on football leagues. The last time I checked, EA had multi-year exclusive licenses to FIFA, NFL, AFL, and NCAA.

Why, technically, can't rosters be updated separately from the engine?

Obviously they can be, but that's not what you're asking. What I suspect you are really interested in is why those roster updates can't be released for free, or at least very cheap.

The answer is licensing. If you want to make a sports game using real team names, and real player names, and real player likenesses, then you need to pay a lot of money to the respective leagues and player associations. EA and 2K can't afford to release free roster updates every year while still paying those licensing fees.